Shazam!
High Life
Widows
The Walking Dead
Log in with Facebook
OR
By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango.
Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password.
We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your account. Just leave us a message here and we will work on getting you verified.
Please reference “Error Code 2121” when contacting customer service.
Atonement features strong performances, brilliant cinematography, and a unique score. Featuring deft performances from James MacAvoy and Keira Knightley, it's a successful adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel.
All Critics (213) | Top Critics (53) | Fresh (177) | Rotten (36) | DVD (8)
Joe Wright directs Atonement with an eye to framing each performance with spectacularly vivid images, including a genuinely breathtaking tracking shot on the bloody, wreckage-strewn beach at Dunkirk. Oct 18, 2008 | Full Review…
Joe Wright directs Atonement with an eye to framing each performance with spectacularly vivid images, including a genuinely breathtaking tracking shot on the bloody, wreckage-strewn beach at Dunkirk.
Bob Mondello
Atonement is a film out of balance, nimble enough in its first half but oddly scattered and ungainly once it leaves the grounds of the Tallis estate. Sep 22, 2008 | Full Review…
Atonement is a film out of balance, nimble enough in its first half but oddly scattered and ungainly once it leaves the grounds of the Tallis estate.
Christopher Orr
Sweeping, showy, and stiff, Joe Wright's adaptation of Ian McEwan's pedigreed bestseller traffics in florid staging and callow emotions. Jan 29, 2008 | Rating: C+ | Full Review…
Sweeping, showy, and stiff, Joe Wright's adaptation of Ian McEwan's pedigreed bestseller traffics in florid staging and callow emotions.
Amy Nicholson
Atonement's extraordinary qualities outweigh any quibbles. Jan 18, 2008 | Rating: 4/6
Atonement's extraordinary qualities outweigh any quibbles.
David Fear
One of the few adaptations that gives a novel the film it deserves. Jan 14, 2008 | Rating: 3.5/4
One of the few adaptations that gives a novel the film it deserves.
Kenneth Turan
Somehow the intensity of McEwan's voice hasn't survived and once we move beyond the magic of that lost summer's day, the film becomes a strangely cool and cerebral experience. Dec 21, 2007 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…
Somehow the intensity of McEwan's voice hasn't survived and once we move beyond the magic of that lost summer's day, the film becomes a strangely cool and cerebral experience.
Sandra Hall
It is an elegant and sophisticated film, one that never condescends or shirks from the complexity of the novel and its grand themes - war, love, sex, memory, betrayal, redemption - but it's also strangely unfeeling. Aug 22, 2018 | Full Review…
It is an elegant and sophisticated film, one that never condescends or shirks from the complexity of the novel and its grand themes - war, love, sex, memory, betrayal, redemption - but it's also strangely unfeeling.
Deborah Ross
Keep any advance knowledge of this superb drama to an absolute minimum, as it deserves every chance to work its devastating wonders upon an unsuspecting audience. Aug 8, 2018 | Rating: 4.5/5 | Full Review…
Keep any advance knowledge of this superb drama to an absolute minimum, as it deserves every chance to work its devastating wonders upon an unsuspecting audience.
Leigh Paatsch
Impeccable design, perfect casting, sound that takes the clack of a typewriter and embeds it into all sorts of furious onscreen rhythms... I was swooning even before the love story kicked in. Aug 22, 2017 | Full Review…
Impeccable design, perfect casting, sound that takes the clack of a typewriter and embeds it into all sorts of furious onscreen rhythms... I was swooning even before the love story kicked in.
Annie Wagner
Atonement's goal is so ephemeral that film may not be able to do it complete justice. All that said, it's still a fantastic piece of craftsmanship, benefiting from loving direction and excellent performances. Dec 28, 2010 | Rating: 8/10 | Full Review…
Atonement's goal is so ephemeral that film may not be able to do it complete justice. All that said, it's still a fantastic piece of craftsmanship, benefiting from loving direction and excellent performances.
Joshua Starnes
An epic, grandiose, and immensely sad film, Atonement is an extremely well crafted, visually rich love story set during a tumultuous time of war, where two impassioned characters are forever torn apart by the selfish jealousy of another. Jul 7, 2010 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
An epic, grandiose, and immensely sad film, Atonement is an extremely well crafted, visually rich love story set during a tumultuous time of war, where two impassioned characters are forever torn apart by the selfish jealousy of another.
Matthew Pejkovic
Figurines in a teacup set, shipped over in boxes labeled 'For your consideration' Aug 27, 2009 | Full Review…
Figurines in a teacup set, shipped over in boxes labeled 'For your consideration'
Fernando F. Croce
Based on the Ian McEwan novel of the same name, this adaptation follows the lie of a little girl, and its repercussions throughout time. Briony Tallis (Ronan) sees something she doesn't understand and inevitable keeps two tragic lovers from being together. It's the same woeful love story that many of us have heard before, but now there's the issue of retribution and atonement for Briony. This makes the story that much more intriguing, because generally we hate the thing that keeps these couples apart, but Briony cannot be totally blamed. Read more at http://www.bluefairyblog.com/new-blog-1/2015/3/18/atonement
Super Reviewer
Made me feel horribly sad, and a bit nauseous.
Joe Wright's 'Atonement' has a lot of positive things going for it, but none more brilliant and substantial than the film's cinematography and visuals. This includes, but is not limited to, a 5 minute tracking shot that never cuts away. It's pure, unadulterated filmmaking that we see less and less of. Not only filled with magnificent visuals, but each of the three leads fills their roles with great intensity and pathos, really creating something out of nothing when it comes to the script. The story feels a little blown out of proportion and the pace a little slow at times, but Wright makes sure it doesn't disappoint his audience. 'Atonement' does not have an astonishingly great story to tell, but its technical brilliance cannot be denied.
A faithful, well-acted, dramatic and sexy rendition of Ian McEwan's novel, which was itself an anachronism, a sort of throwback to the age of D.H. Lawrence and the kind of modernist maximalism he was known for. The film turns around the way in which the assault of a child is recounted - Robbie Turner is sent to jail, then to war, despite maintaining his innocence, and an imaginative 13-year-old is the primary witness. It's hard to go in-depth about this film without ruining the experience, but suffice to say, there is a frame here that you'll eventually get to step out of, and the story changes depending on who's telling it. All is revealed in the end, but until then just enjoy the varied and incredibly well-scored ride; there's a one-take of a war camp that's absolutely breathtaking.
View All Quotes
View All